Course Description
What does it mean to be human and what is the purpose of human beings in the cosmos? This ancient question is crucial for understanding some of the modern challenges to living the Christian vocation today. This course explores answers given by followers of Christ in the first centuries, in critical dialogue with ancient philosophy. It presents their reflections on the shape the human vocation takes in the light of God’s revelation in Christ and by the transforming power of the Spirit as a source for renewed theological thought today. Particular consideration is given to St Paul, the Gospel of John, and the spirituality of the Desert Fathers.
Bibliography
DURR SIMON. Paul on the Human Vocation: Reason Language in Romans and Ancient Philosophical Tradition. BZNW 226. Berlin: De Gruyter. 2021. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110750560.
WRIGHT N. T. Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World. New York: HarperOne. 2020.
WILLIAM ROWAN. Passions of the Soul. London: Bloomsbury. 2024.
WILLIAMS ROWAN. Looking East in Winter: Contemporary Thought and the Eastern Christian Tradition. London: Bloomsbury. 2021.
BETZ JOHN. Christ, the Logos of Creation: An Essay in Analogical Metaphysics. Steubenville: Emmaus Academic. 2023.